1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an office filing device which is an improved form of a hanging file of the type used with a pair of rigid, laterally spaced, parallel rails held elevated at the top of a file storage cabinet compartment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hanging file system have been used in offices throughout the world for many years. In a typical hanging file arrangement, a file cabinet drawer is equipped with a pair of rails that are held elevated at the top of a file storage cabinet compartment. Hanging files, having rigid, transverse support members with hooks at their ends are supported with their file pockets depending beneath and between the rails with the bottoms of the file pockets held slightly above the floor of the file cabinet drawer. The rails may be supported directly from the file drawer walls by means of notches therein. Alternatively, a metal framework may be assembled and seated within the file cabinet drawer with the supporting rails held aloft in a mutually parallel, horizontal disposition. The rails may be oriented either parallel to or perpendicular to the direction in which the drawer pulls out of its cabinet, depending upon the support structure adopted. One exemplary hanging file support system in illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,020.
One type of hanging file which has significant advantages in certain situations is a type of file known in the office supply industry as a box file or box bottom file. Such a file includes the conventional supporting bars with hooked ends that rest atop the supporting rail. A file pocket, typically fabricated from either stiff paper, cardboard, or some plastic sheet material hangs from the support bars. Unlike many hanging file folders, the retaining panels of which converge to a single bottom fold thus forming a "V-shaped" configuration, box files have a more rectangular configuration. Specifically, the retaining panels of a box file are oriented in a mutually parallel, generally vertical disposition and are separated from each other at their lower extremities by a generally horizontally disposed floor. A box file is normally equipped with end panels that connect to and maintain a separation between the transverse retaining panels that hang beneath the hooked support bars. One prior art-type of box file is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,734.
Box files have several advantages over hanging files having a "v-shaped" bottom. Box files, even when empty, tend to retain their shape since the box file floor and end panels hold the retaining panels apart and in a generally vertical orientation. Thus, when materials such as papers, pamphlets, reports, and the like are removed from a box file, the box file floor and end panels prevent the transverse retaining panels from collapsing toward each other. This facilitates the return to the file of papers and materials that have been withdrawn, since the top of the hanging box file remains open and ready to receive these materials. Also, even an empty box file will tend to reserve the space necessary in the file drawer to receive the papers and articles that will ultimately be returned to it. The retaining panels of V-bottom files, on the other hand, immediately collapse toward each other when the file contents are withdrawn.
One problem with conventional office box files is that the size of the pocket defined therein is relatively inflexible. That is, conventional box files are typically designed to receive only one type of article, such as papers or pamphlets having a size typically ranging between eight and a half inches by eleven inches and nine inches by twelve inches. Conventional box files do not readily accommodate articles within an office that are much smaller, for example tall and narrow pamphlets or the conventional 3.5 inch "floppy" computer discs that are now so widely utilized in office environments. If one attempts to store articles of this size in a conventional box file, the contents of the hanging box file quickly fall into disarray.
A further, very significant disadvantage of conventional box files is that they require an inordinate amount of space while they are being stored or shipped. The advantage of maintaining a particular volume of occupancy during use of a box file in an office is a disadvantage in warehousing quantities of such box files and shipping them prior to use. Stated more simply, conventional box files are not readily collapsible and therefore are inordinately bulky to store and ship.